


Great Escape

by Shanaya91



Category: White Collar
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8117107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shanaya91/pseuds/Shanaya91
Summary: Vincent Adler didn't leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the Feds to follow when he vanished with  billions of dollers. And did take the only person who could link him to the crime and the only person brilliant enough to help him find the nazi treasure.Mozzie is a rather reluctant informant for FBI agent  Peter Burke and still looking for his missing protégé and friend.Sera Ellis is a insurance investigator with a new case.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In the story Neal is a bit younger. He was 21 when he worked for Adler and after five years 26, sara is same age. Alex has the music box. Mozzie helps Peter with some cases but he stays away from the white collar unit.

#WC#WC#

Her vacation had just begun and its already going downhill. Normally Sara wouldn't care much. She had no familial obligations and her relationships are mostly out of mutual convenience and unattached. She can hop planes and cross citys with moments notice. But it was her parents thirtieth wedding anniversary and they had planned to come to the city where they had met and fall in love to celebrate it. But they died half a decade ago in a car crash and she had no idea where her sister is. So Sara decided to come to Buenos Aires alone as the last member of her family with the memories of her parents happy marriage. But now she was stuck, listening to her boss, Edgar Cesington talk.

"I'm really sorry about this Sara. I know its your vacation and the first you've taken in two years. I wouldn't contact contact you if I had other choice."

The bustling city with its vibrantly dressed people was not so fabulous anymore. Edgar knew how to get what he wants, it is no secret to the employees of New York Sterling Bosch.

" Its alright Eddy." Sara said with a sigh.

"Good, are you at your hotel?"

" No I'm still on my way. But I've already made reservations in Legado Mítico. You can fax the information under my name. I'll be there in few minutes anyway."

There goes her plans to enjoy the rooftop pool, now she'd be looming over dozens of papers instead.  
The receptionist already had her case documents when she arrived. Sara checked into her room and took a quick hot shower to clean up the exhaustion of a long flight. After ordering a light dinner she setted on the fluffy chair by the French windows with the case file. Normally she hated taking over half finished case as they were unsalvageably messed up by amateurs and newbies to the job. But these documents were not that bad. Sara wondered what caused this investigator to give up his or her hard work.

Apparently a private gallery in New York is missing a Matisse. The painting was on loan for an exhibition from the famous Waldorf family. They were a filthy rich upper east side family who insured everything from famous paintings to antique kitchenware under Sterling Bosch. So that explained why her boss seemed to be so concerned about this. The FBI had followed the the trail to a fence named Carlos Santonio who had skipped the country before they can catch him. According to the file the investigator had followed him to Paris and he or she gathered from a source that the fence had already sold it.

" The estimated value of the painting twenty three freaking dollers. And the fence sold it for eighteen million in the black market, not bad."

The rumored buyer of the painting was a wealthy businessman from latin America, supposedly Argentina. So that's why Eddy decided to crash her vacation. May be he thought he could kill two birds with one stone.  
Sara unpacked her laptop from her bag and searched Argentinian elite and who are known to be popular art collectors and enthusiasts among them. Few names poped up but none of them lit alarm bells in her mind. She went back to the web pages and almost closed the tab when one name caught her attention.

"Victor Adler. There's something so familiar about that name."

She typed the name and quickly googled it. All the results were about vineyards, and charity events and fashion shows participated by the man's newest girlfriend. She is a supermodel and fomer Miss Argentina and didn't seem to be interested in art. For a man named by the media to be one of the richest men in latin america she was surprised to find no clear pictures of what he looked like. It seemed as if he purposely avoids being photographed by media. There were few mentions of him having a son but no pictures of the kid either. So it could be that this billionaire is either extremely camera shy or he's got something to hide.  
It could be nothing but the name tingled something in her memory so it was worth looking in to. Like any good investigator worth het name she knew to trust her gut. And the Richter scale scale in her mind was glowing near red.  
She quickly snatched her phone from the nightstand and dialed a number in her phone book.

" Hello Sara whats up?" Agent Burke sounded like he just woke up from sleep. Sara glanced at the clock with a goan. It was already pass midnight.

" Oh I'm so sorry if i woke you up Peter. I didn't realize it was so late." She apologized and decided to bring some good present for them from her trip.

" Its okay. So whats going on. Aren't you supposed to be sunbathing somewhere in Thailand."

" Site seing in Argentina, but close. Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you know anyone called Victor Adler?" She asked.

"Vincent Adler?"

So that's where she's heard that name. The man whose responsible for the gratest ponzi scheme of 21 century.

" No this guy is Victor Adler. His name poped up in one of my investigations. Still don't have visual on him. But this could be the same guy. Want me to look into him?"

"Sara this is no ordinary criminal. This man is one of the gratest White collar criminals. There was no trail for us to follow him not because it ran cold. There was no trail. If this is the same guy, I want you to inform us before doing anything rush. Promise me you'll do that?"

"Thats good advice. You know me Peter, I don't take unnecessary risks. I'll inform you if I make a connection. Good night Peter."

"Good night Sara."

She hung up the phone and went to bed. Her vacation just fall from the proverbial frying pan into the fire.

 

#WC#WC#

Sara spent two more days in Buenos Aires following few leads which eventually hit dead end. Argentinian elite is a close bunch who made their fortune by manufacturing and exporting agricultural goods. They knew each other enough to rat out a unfamiliar name and the meager few suspects on her list seemed to be well established members of the society. Even Victor Adler has lived in Argentina for a long time. "For as long as I can remember." A very chatty twenty something trust fund baby told her in a high end bar after a few shots of vodka Martini.

So either she's barking up a wrong tree and this man is just a rich businessman Who might or might not have acquired million dollar painting from a black market fence, or he's Vincent Adler with an ironclad alias.  
She couldn't believe it when she finally got her only solid information from none other than the owner of her own hotel, Mrs. Camila Lopez. She had to pull a lot of strings to get a meeting with the bussy woman.

"I have never met him personally but I've been to his girlfriend's charity events." Mrs. Lopez said never even raising he eyes from the file she was reading.

" Yes, Morena Torres I know her. We met during New York fashion week. Is there any way I can contact her?"

She was taking a huge risk here. She hadn't done much homework on the girlfriend so she didn't even know if she's ever been to US.

"Look Miss. Ellis, if that's even your real name. I know you are fishing for information on Morena Torres for some reason. I'll tell you everything I know because I don't like her. That woman was nearly broke until she met Mr. Adler and now she's just throwing parties under the illusion of collecting money for helping orphanages."

There seem to be a clear enmity between the two women. Sara almost felt like telling Camila why she was after Morena and see what other dirt she can collect on the famous model. But she didn't want Camila to reveal she's looking into Victor Adler to Morena in a bitch fight.

Mrs. Lopez was still going on about Morena.  
" I don't know about you but a woman never start an affair with a wealthy widower double her age and father to a son nearly as old as her unless she's after something."

Sara didn't exactly believe that. She is a believer of you can't choose who you love. But she's got a point there. Now that they are on an interesting subject she had Camilia Lopez's full attention. She even closed the file and put it in a drawer under her big mahogany table.

" Have you met his son in one of these charity events?"

If this is Vincent Adler " the son" might be an imposter used to create the perfect cover for Victor Adler.

" Some of my friends have. A very good looking guy. But he seems to prefer staying in Mendoza, overseeing his father's many vineyards and bodegas. Quite boring if you ask me. He collect antiques but nobody's seen any of them."

May be he collects valubal paintings too. It is possible this Victor Adler or his son is the person who has the Matisse. This information is valuable enough to warrant a trip to Mendoza, Argentina's wine country.

#WC#WC#


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK so I couldn't post the chapter on the day I promised. I'm really sorry about that.

"#WC#WC#

It started as any other day for the members of FBI white collar division in New York. But Peter was practically radiating energy as he entered the conference room. This only happened to him when he's after a smart criminal and no one can be smarter than the man responsible for the biggest ponzi scheme of US history and vanished without a trace. He was following a different crook back then, important cases like that went to much senior agents in the unit. Agent Garner who was the case agent for the Adler case took an early retirement due to health reasons 2 years back. So it now fall on to him to shed some light on the seemingly unsolvable case.

Diana , Jones and the rest of the team had already set camp inside the conference room since early morning. Peter knew that he has to talk to Mozzie at some point today. He always had the gut feeling that he knew more about Adler than he let on. But the little guy was so busy trying to break the code that was hidden in the tune of the music box. It was kind of funny watching him trying to include his various conspiracy theories to the mystery of the box, Peter was willing to neglect Alex Hunter's involvement in finding it.

" So Diana, what have we got?" He asked taking his usual seat .

" We did some digging. So far not so good." She said handing him a set of papers.

"We cross referenced what we have on the missing Matisse with Sara's records about it. And then I contacted Interpol to get their info on Carlos Santonio. He cut a deal with them, shortened sentence for a bigger fish to fry. He was shot last night while he was being transported to a safe house."

Everyone in the room looked at her with surprise on their faces. They all knew that Interpol had better resources to protect their witnesses than the FBI. Then again they had much more dangerous criminals catch too. Peter quickly went through the pictures of Santonio's murder scene and the evidence they'd gathered, which wasn't much. It was a professional hit. They had found the sniper's nest empty and surgical clean of any evidence.

" So this happened 26 minutes after Santonio agreed to turn state's evidence?"

" He had connections to Ghovat and the arms smuggling branch of his criminal empire. The Interpol was trying to make him testify against few of Ghovat's rich businessman clients in China. So we can't say if this is directly involved with our case."

" But we can't completely rule it out either." Jones pointed out.

" Yeah" Peter nodded. " Diana keep contact with the Interpol. Let's see what they dig up."

#wC#WC#

After the meeting with his team Peter walked into his office room and closed the door behind him. Then he dialed the number Mozzie gave him during their last meet up.

"I heard a mockingbird sing in the park," Mozzie said as soon as he answered the phone.

" Mozzie, come to my house in the evening. We should talk."

" That's not how this works. You must say it was a yellow bird."

" Don't have time for theatrics Mozzie. This is an important case." Sometimes the little guy could really get on his nerves.

"We criminals make our own hours Suit. I'm not one of your bureaucratically burdened slaves bound by a nine to five job. I go to places when I want."

"Okay, okay. How about dinner tonight. El is making Spaghetti carbonara."

"You know I never refuse free food. I will be there at 1700 and I will knock seven times."

" And Mozzie......find everything you can about Victor Adler. He is a big shot businessman from Argentina.......hello Mozzie you still there?" The man had already hung up.

If Peter wasn't already used to his weird behavior he'd consider that rude . But Mozzie had his own set of rules to follow. the paranoid little man naver talks with anyone on the phone for more than 1 minutes so that his location cannot be tracked . He wouldn't even use the same phone twice.

#WC#WC#

Peter opened the door before he could knock seven times. These G-men never understand the importance of extra security measures. The look on the Suit's face clearly stated what he had already guessed. This is not another one of those run of the mill cases where he has to point out ( what should be visible to even toddlers) clues used by amateur thieves. Mozzie handed him the bottle of wine he brought with him as a present.

" From my private collection"

"I don't recognize the label." The Suit directed another one of his suspicious looks at him.

"Its because its so out of your g-man prize range." Peter's face darkened with anger.

"Oh, we are so happy that you brought something so valuable for us.....aren't we hon? " El put her hand on Peter's soulder trying to calm him down.

" Yeah, we are thrilled. " Peter muttered.

The dinner with the Suits supplied endless amusement to Mozzie. He liked to drop hints about things the big brother was so desperately trying to pass of as crazy conspiracy theories and watch Suit's expressions carefully for any clues. He even created few of them to see how they would act. These things provided him with more information about how g-men acted outside their bureaucratical habitat.

" Ok. Mozzie, enough with the BS. Let's move this conversation to the living room."

Peter opened the refrigerator and grabbed couple of beer bottles. El moved to the kitchen to clean the dishes.

"So what kind of dirt did you find on our target?" The little man looked really uncomfortable. Which was his natural state when he's in Peter's vicinity. But the man seemed almost nervous today.

"He is an incredibly private guy. Put it this way....there are more photos of bigfoot than there are of him. It's even hard to find photos of his legal family. Its like he lives through his famous girlfriends. But there are no clear shots of his face in the few couple photos I found." Mozzie was kind of impressed with the guy. But if this person is who he think he is, he has more reasons to be absolutely terrified of him.

"That's it? that's all you have. Diana could have told you all of that twelve hours ago."

"Don't compare me to the lady Suit. And I did some deeper digging. According to my street contacts who have connections to south America, this guy has a hand in considerable area of the underworld down there. Which include weapons smuggling and every thing that ends with the word trafficking." Human trafficking, dear god, what has Neall gotten himself in to.

Mozzie searched for Neal every nook and corner in the world for months until it emptied most of his resources. He even put a three million bounty on Adler's head and made it an open season for hunters.Then he found himself under Suit's radar and the man kept him busy. So he didn't have a chance to take long trips around the world. As the time went on the number of people who believe that Neal could still be alive dwindled. Mozzie even buried his fear for unidentified viruses that frequent the germ incubators commonly known as hospitals for awhile and checked local morgues for John Does fished out of the Hudson. But he has always kept Adler and Neal flagged around his circles. But this is the best lead he's had in over two years. He had no explainable way to tell the Suit how important this case was for him.

" So are you going to arrest this person?" Even if Neal was dead this would bring justice and closure for him.

"We need solid proof Mozzie, Argentina's well outside the FBI jurisdiction. Unfortunately even with the extradition arrangement, we can't issue an international' arrest warrant without admissible proof and especially with illegally obtained third hand intell. As I don't think that you or non of your friends will be willing to come to the bureau and give a statement we have to wait until our informant over there gives us fingerprints or at least pictures of the man. Then we can run them through our database and face detection software."

"And while you do that I'll put my less legal but more effective source to work."

"Don't do anything stupid. I don't want to explain to Hughes why Adler slipped through our fingers again because he got spooked by your pocking. And be careful. If this is Adler, and if my gut is right, he has already killed a man just to cover his tracks." Suit and his famous gut, the most formidable weapon of FBI.

"Oh, ye of little faith. But I will take your warning to consideration."

#WC#WC#

The journey from Buenos Aires to Mendoza was tiring one. She decided to stay off the radar in case someone had sniffed and figured that she'd been asking around about Adler. Though Argentina is country with US extradition treaty, she had a good idea how local law enforcement worked when powerful members of their society were involved. And the Mendozian police might already be in Adler's pocket. And until she can prove that the person she is after really is Vincent Adler, no legal help from the FBI can be expected. That meant no public transport. So she rented a car and bought a map, hitting the roads in the early morning. Rain slowed the traffic in several places and added additional twenty minutes to the journey. Still she managed to check in to her hotel In time for dinner. It was just a small B&B but the best she could come up with in such a short notice. All her past experienced indicated that it was better to keep a low profile when dealing with a dangerous person.

Her room was spartan with just a queen sized bed a dresser and a small almirah for the clothes. And she quickly realized that the hotel had a very crappy WiFi service. Which meant she had no way of knowing if the FBI had gathered any new info on the case. She had nothing of importance to report either, so she decided to leave it for the next day. By looking at the brochure she picked from the front desk she compared the names of vineyards which offers tours for tourists with the names of properties owned by Adler. Only one was on the list and it was a rather small one. So she wouldn't find Victor Adler or his son harvesting grapes in the vineyard during her tour. Not that she expected to. With the amount of money Adler stole from his ponzi scheme the money from the vineyards must feel like pocket change. The brochure also said that the national grape harvest festival will be celebrated in the first days of March and is a major tourist attraction. It meant within the next few weeks the city will be swamped with more tourists. The festival will be attended by many members of the local elite including none other than Miss. Morena Torres. This might be her in, Sara decided.

She spend the entire morning next day in the city library going through everything she could find about Mendoza city, the small villages scattered around it and their customs and traditions. She learned that apart from the main Mendochino festival, a lot of private parties will be held all over the 18 departmants which make up the Mendoza province. She could try to get invited to these parties and try to see who would show up, surely Adler and his son were more open with their close community? But they were mostly invites only. She had to find someone who can make her a fake invitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for the people who can't imagine Mozzie working for the feds on his own freewill- this is not the same as Neal. He is not wearing a tracker or has a radius. He's just giving a helping hand to Peter without having anything to do with the rest of the WCD.

**Author's Note:**

> Please read and comment.   
> Kudos are love (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


End file.
